If you are interested in joining my research lab at Michigan State, please contact me via the contact form on the left. I am always interested in students with strong interests in the conservation of biodiversity, particularly from a social science perspective, with excellent written and oral communication skills, and with the maturity to work independently and creatively. Below you can read about what my current and past graduate students have done.

Stacie Auvenshine

Stacie graduated from Michigan State University with an MS in Fisheries and Wildlife in 2011. Stacie studied policy fragmentation among Michigan townships in regards to aquatic conservation. Specifically, Stacie asked the question of whether local environmental policies, land use planning, and fragmentation within lake catchments affect inland lake water clarity.

Chris Jordan

Chris is a Ph.D. candidate researching terrestrial biodiversity and traditional environmental knowledge along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. One of the primary objectivesof his research is to determine the impacts of socioeconomic development on wildlife occupancy and the retention of traditional environmental knowledge.

Shylene Mata

Shyleneis a Ph.D. candidate who holds a master's degree in Public Administration with concentration in International Development and a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University. Her research looks at social networks of migrantsto the agricultural frontier in Caribbean Nicaragua. Her research interests include community-based management and participatory action research.

Anna Mitterling

Anna is a master’s student studying social networks within organized deer hunting cooperatives on private properties in southern Michigan. She received her B.A. at Spring Arbor University in Recreation and Natural Resources. Her current research evaluates the group influence of deer cooperatives on individual hunting behavior using social network analysis.

Kristen Schmitt

Kristen graduated from Michigan State University with an MS in fisheries and wildlife in 2008. Kristen studied the indirect environmental effects of road building on the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. Specifically, Kristen looked at shifting market flow and price changes for natural resource goods and corresponding fishing and farming decisions in response to new roads. She found that fisheries markets in the area were more responsive to market access improvements than agricultural markets.

Shikha Singh

Shikha is a Ph.D. candidate trying to mapthe different types of policies and strategies used by local governments in Michigan to protect freshwater resources using GIS. She received a master’s degree under Dr. Rose studying fecal indicator bacteria in the Grand River (MI) and a B.Sc. in Biology from theUniversity of Western Ontario. Her current research is focused on determining if there is evidence of policy fragmentation within watersheds and to what extent policies are influenced by population demographics and land use/land cover.

Kara Stevens

Kara is a Ph.D. candidate studying the social and ecological dynamics of small-scale fisheries on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. She is studying the impact of fishing on a multi-species estuarine fishery as well as the role of social networks in driving an individual fisherman’s change in harvest and management behavior. She is broadly interested in understanding how rapid social or environmental changes affect communal management of natural resources and the resulting impact on biodiversity.